Other papers

Over the past several years, sometimes I started work on papers but never quite completed them or submitted them for peer reviewed publication. Thus they are not as polished as the published papers. However, they contain enough original research that some may find them valuable. Thus a brief description and a link to papers is included here.

Boston T Riders Union. This organization works to promote transportation justice in the Boston area. Founded by members of Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE), it is an example of several important lessons that can be learned from and principles that underlie environmental justice organizations.

Thirty Years of Urban Sprawl in Metropolitan America. The result of research funded by the Fannie Mae Foundation, this paper provides an overview of how levels of sprawl have changed in the United States since 1970. What is interesting is that both many metropolitan areas are highly sprawled and that sprawl itself is not inevitable. About 10% of US metropolitan areas have become less sprawled over that thirty year period. Portland, Oregon is a very interesting example. From 1970 to 1980, sprawl levels in that metro area were increasing. After 1980, when Portland's great anti-sprawl efforts began to have effects, sprawl levels began to fall.

Racial Segregation and Air Toxics. This was the third part of my doctoral dissertation which I never submitted for publication. It builds on my paper published in Environmental Health Perspectives and extends the analysis in that paper, which focused exclusively on African Americans, to Hispanics and Asians. it found that while segregation levels were not as high as they are for Blacks, segregation of other groups is also associated with increased overall levels of air toxics and greater inequality of exposure to air toxics.

New Urbanism and Public Health. Advocates for the improvement of the built environment have suggested that new urbanism, a urban design style that sites buildings close to streets, emphasizes pedestrian and bike circulation, and promotes mixed uses, provides a better alternative for health than conventional development which features denritic street layouts, large front yards, and automobile transportation. But while new urbanist designs may, in fact, promote health, there has been little review of the history and basic texts of new urbanism to determine if health improvements, as we understand them today, were an objective of the movement. Through a review of the history of new urbanism and the current built environment health movement, an assessment of three core documents outlining new urbanist principles, and site visits to three new urbanist developments, the health impact potential of new urbanism is assessed. New urbanism would appear to promote health, particularly lowered obesity rates, increased physical activity and increased social capital. But the development of new urbanism predates the renewed public health concern about the built environment. Furthermore, the core texts of new urbanism rarely mention health. As built developments do have health promoting features, but their locations can limit their effectiveness. Recommendations are that new urbanism should amend their texts so that they explicitly its positive potential health impacts and the siting of new urbanist developments should be carefully considered.﻿